by Unknown
‘Imps!’ squealed Inchy. ‘I hate imps!’
‘Don’t be such a baby,’ snapped Cherry. ‘House can handle a few imps.’
‘Yeah,’ said House, taking a tentative step towards the tiny creatures. ‘There are quite a lot of them, though.’
Then another sound, like a tattered old newspaper being torn by a harsh breeze, cut through the noise the imps were making. Their many shadows backed away, to be replaced by a single shadow even more terrible. It stretched across the gang: long arms ending in sharp‐clawed hands; bent, muscular legs; a scarred torso and wings so huge they seemed to enfold the whole world.
Finally, the shadow spoke. The gang all recognized the voice at once, but it did not come from the face of a teacher. Instead, it gushed forth from the fanged mouth of a demon.
‘Hello, Cloud.’
And the laughter of Mr Dante reverberated through the cellars like thunder.
15
Face Off
‘You know, I always wanted a pet angel,’ said Dante, his wings scraping the walls, sending chunks of rubble skittering across the floor. ‘But to have four? Why, what a treat that will be!’
The gang were trapped: Dante in front of them, a horde of vile, stinking imps crowding all around.
‘We’re not pets,’ said Cherry, sounding far more defiant than she felt.
‘You will be, my dear,’ said Dante, leaning forward, an evil grin slicing his face. ‘And you will learn to do my every command, to obey my every whim, no matter how awful it may sound. Allow me to demonstrate.’
The gang watched as Dante turned to the imps and pointed.
‘You!’
A pathetic imp edged forward, one foot dragging behind the other. It stood alone, cowering between Dante and the gang.
‘Fetch me coal from the furnace,’ said Dante. The imp didn’t even hesitate. It turned, ran to the furnace, thrust its hand through the grate and returned with a red‐hot coal clutched in its smoking fingers.
‘More,’ said Dante, not even looking at what the imp had brought.
The imp dropped the coal, ran back to the furnace, and this time returned with both hands piled high with scorching embers.
‘You see?’ said Dante as flames started to lick around the imp’s hands. ‘I command and they obey. You’ll soon get used to the arrangement, I’m sure. Now, if you don’t mind…’
Dante opened a huge claw expectantly.
‘Are you just going to leave the poor thing like that?’ asked Cherry, looking at the imp. Flames had now almost fully engulfed it.
Dante smiled.
‘Of course not,’ he said, and he reached out, plucked the imp from the ground and popped it into his mouth, coals and all.
The sound of crunching made Alex’s stomach churn.
‘I’m not going to be eaten by a demon,’ muttered House. ‘No way. That’s so not happening to me.’
‘Come,’ said Dante, opening his hand once more. ‘If you give me the egg now, I promise that your pain will be more, well, bearable.’
Alex knew he had to think. If ever he could do with a genius plan it was now. It was his fault that his friends were in this mess. He just needed more time to come up with something.
He faced Dante, wide‐eyed.
‘How did you turn Spit?’
House, Cherry and Inchy all turned to look at Alex.
‘What are you doing?’ muttered Inchy, under his breath. Alex ignored him.
‘Come on. How did you do it? What did you offer him? It must have been quite something to turn an angel to follow your stinking ideas.’
‘Alex!’ hissed Cherry. ‘Don’t wind him up!’
‘What are you wittering on about now, Cloud?’ snarled Dante. ‘Every time you open your mouth, I’m tempted to tear out your tongue and wear it round my neck.’
‘Spit,’ said Alex, trying to ignore the rather horrible threat. ‘You turned him traitor. What did you offer him that was enough to turn him against us, his friends? Just how much were we worth?’
Dante laughed.
‘And why do you think I would bother to “turn” even one of you, when I can quite easily swat you all like flies?’
‘You knew we were here last night,’ said Alex, still frantically trying to think of a way out of this desperate situation. ‘And you knew about the meeting at the old games shed. The only people who knew about that were me and Spit.’
He looked Dante right in the eyes, hoping that his voice wasn’t shaking too much. ‘I made it up – there was no meeting! But you still came, didn’t you? Spit told you about it. He betrayed us.’
Just saying the words made Alex feel so angry that it was all he could do to stop himself screaming.
‘Cloud,’ said Dante, ‘I have no need to recruit spies from the student body; I have my own army of them right here. And, as you have seen, they are utterly loyal, even to the point of death.’
Dante gestured at the dozens of cackling imps that surrounded them.
‘But how did they find out about it?’ asked Alex.
‘Look,’ said Dante, gesturing expansively around the cellar. ‘What do you see?’
‘Pipes,’ said Alex. ‘But what’ve pipes got to do with it?’
Dante let his head fall back in a terrible laugh.
‘Of course!’ cried Inchy. ‘The imps have been running around in the pipes. That’s why they’ve been rattling so much – and why the school’s been so hot. The imps must have overheard you talking to Spit about the meeting!’
‘Clever boy,’ said Dante, now turning to look at Inchy. ‘You’ll make a very useful pet. Yes, my imps have done a wonderful job of keeping the egg warm for me – with the added bonus of keeping me informed as to the goings‐on in this silly little school.’
Alex felt his breath catch in his throat. He wanted to be sick, to run away, to hide. How could he have been so wrong?
His whole body shaking, Alex stared at Dante.
‘It wasn’t Spit,’ he said faintly. ‘It was the imps. They told you everything. It wasn’t Spit.’
‘Indeed, Mr Cloud,’ sneered Dante. ‘How little faith you put in your so‐called friends. But enough of this; hand me the egg at once!’
Dante stretched out his taloned hand towards the gang.
Everyone looked at Alex, but he seemed dumbstruck.
Cherry spoke up instead. ‘If we run, there’s no way you can catch all of us,’ she shouted. ‘One of us will escape. And we’ll call down Special Operations, and that’ll be it – you’re history!’
Once again Dante laughed, as if the whole evening was one enormous joke.
‘Special Operations?’ he scoffed. ‘Do you really think that those blundering fools concern me? Besides, I have allies of my own in this pathetic town.’
Dante growled, his wings flapped, and the walls of the cellar seemed to shake, dust and rock falling around them. He stared at the gang, his hideous face low, his eyes glowing like fire in the darkness.
‘Let your Special Operations come!’ he said, his voice an avalanche of rocks and cracking ice. ‘My master will destroy you all!’
‘What’s he going on about?’ whispered House, but Alex wasn’t listening, couldn’t hear. All he could think about was Spit and how he’d misjudged everything so spectacularly. If only he’d realized. If only he’d thought things through. But it was too late now. Too late to do anything.
Dante was standing tall now, hands stretched high.
‘And my master,’ continued Dante, ‘will bring the kingdom of Hell on Earth! And you will all kneel before us!’
Realization flashed across Inchy’s face.
‘I knew I’d seen someone else!’ he said. ‘Remember? When I first followed him into the cellar.’
‘So who is this master?’ asked Cherry. ‘What’s he on about?’
But there was no time for anyone to answer, as Dante shot out a long‐fingered hand and plucked the zombie‐like Alex from the ground.
‘Now, give me
back that egg before I crush Cloud – one bone at a time!’
Alex looked down at his gang. They were his friends, the people who had trusted him.
And now everything was finished because of him. Everything.
And it was at that moment that a plan popped into his head.
There was no time to think about it. Alex just had to hope he knew his remaining friends better than he’d known Spit.
‘OK, you win. House, give him the egg – and be careful.’
House looked up.
‘Are you serious?’
‘Yes,’ said Alex. ‘Just be very, very careful, OK?’
House shuffled his feet awkwardly. Alex could already see the nervous sweat beading on his brow.
‘Umm.’
‘I’ll do it,’ said Cherry, pulling open the rucksack.
‘No!’ growled Alex, through gritted teeth. ‘Not you; House. Let him do it.’
For a moment, the gang just stared at him, confused. Then, suddenly, the penny dropped. Cherry and Inchy understood.
‘Go on, House,’ said Cherry, holding the open bag out towards the big angel.
‘Yeah,’ added Inchy. ‘Just be really careful.’
His hands shaking, House plucked the egg out of the bag, holding it as if it was a bomb. It barely fitted into his cupped hands, glowing green in the gloomy cellar.
House looked up at Dante and started to walk slowly towards him. He didn’t really understand what was going on, but Alex had given him a job to do. Alex always trusted him, even if he did get nervous sometimes. And House wasn’t about to let down his best mate. It wasn’t too difficult, really. Alex had told him what to do: just carry the egg to Dante and be very, very careful. The last thing he wanted to do in this situation was to –
House tripped.
The egg spun high into the air.
With a roar, Dante dropped Alex to the floor with a thump, grabbed wildly at the egg – and missed.
Almost in slow motion, the gang watched as the egg turned over and over in the air before smashing into the ground and exploding in a huge burst of fire and acid.
Dante screamed. His wings went into overdrive – flailing around, smashing into the walls and bringing down lumps of rock from the roof. He turned, his teeth bared and wet with drool, dribbling to the floor.
‘I will eat your souls!’ he screeched.
The gang cowered, waiting for the inevitable.
The last thing any of them expected was a large yellow balloon to smack Dante right in the face and explode in a shower of water. It was very quickly followed by three more. Each balloon was a different colour, but they all burst on impact, spraying water all over the furious demon and his imps.
The gang turned to see where the balloons had been launched from.
‘Spit!’ yelled Alex.
Sure enough, standing in the doorway, a long orange balloon balanced on his left foot, was Spit. His hair was hanging loose across his face, and his eyes, narrow and keen, were utterly focused on Dante.
With a flick of his leg, Spit sent the orange balloon flying across the cave, as if it were an oversized football. His aim was as true as a perfect corner kick, but Dante was ready this time and caught the balloon in one hand, bursting it.
Dante’s laugh slammed through the cave, his huge chest steaming as the liquid evaporated away. He stared down at Spit.
‘You pitiful, childish fool! Did you really think that a Fire Demon could be harmed by water!’
Spit eyeballed Dante, brushing the hair from his eyes.
‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Only an idiot would throw water at a demon.’
Dante’s face was torn by a snarl.
‘But I’m not an idiot, and guess what?’
Spit grinned.
‘That isn’t just water.’
Something certainly wasn’t right. The cloud of steam rising from Dante’s body wasn’t slowing. In fact, it seemed to be growing thicker, more like smoke. And at his feet, the imps were exploding like popcorn, vanishing in little puffs of black.
‘What have you done?’ roared the demon.
‘It’s silver, dung‐breath,’ said Spit brightly. ‘Water mixed with lots and lots of silver.’
‘Look!’ yelled Inchy. ‘His face! It’s crumbling!’
‘He’s turning to stone!’ shouted Alex. ‘Outstanding!’
It was true. The skin of Dante’s face was cracking and peeling, like an old scab. As the gang watched, one of his wings suddenly snapped off, falling to the ground, where it exploded in a shower of gritty black dust.
Then his other wing crumbled. A hand followed – then the rest of the arm. Dante roared again, shaking the cave.
But he was finding it harder to move. His body was seizing up. With a final shriek, Dante fell silent and still, his huge demonic form frozen where it stood, like a gigantic statue.
Alex looked at Cherry.
‘I’m thinking now’s as good a time as any to test out your new archery skills.’
Without a word, Cherry raised her bow, took aim, let fly an arrow.
And Dante exploded into a cloud of rubble and dust.
16
High School Heroes
‘Did you honestly think I was asleep?’
It was the next day, and Spit was standing between Alex and Cherry just outside the old shed in the woods at the bottom of the garden. In front of them, under Inchy’s direction, House was digging a large hole.
‘What else were we supposed to think?’ replied Alex. ‘Your eyes were shut and you were snoring.’
‘And you actually thought I was on Dante’s side?’
Alex paused, opened his mouth and then shut it again, in a very good impression of a goldfish.
Spit shook his head.
‘What is it with you? Just because I don’t love getting into trouble all the time, you think that automatically makes me the bad guy? One of us has to keep our feet on the ground – wings or no wings.’
Cherry glanced at the two boys and then walked over to the hole to give a few needless instructions to House. This was between Alex and Spit.
‘Look, I’m sorry,’ said Alex, his shoulders slumped. ‘But what was I supposed to think? I mean, it’s not like you were really into fighting Dante, was it?’
‘How odd – not to want to fight a Level Four Demon,’ snapped Spit. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’d betray you!’
Spit raised his voice.
‘And then you tried to trick me! I mean, what’s all that about?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alex.
‘Yes, you do. You’re always scheming, always complicating things with your stupid plans.’
They fell silent.
‘Look,’ said Alex eventually, ‘I just want to say… What you did back in the cellar. That was… Well, it was really cool.’
Spit looked up.
‘I mean it,’ said Alex, brightening. ‘It was awesome! Those waterbombs were just the best thing ever! They totally destroyed Dante! And your silky skills are back up to their normal standards. You may have played like a muppet in the game against The Black Crows, but you were brilliant when you needed to be. You’re a demon slayer!’
At this, the rest of the gang turned back to Spit.
‘It was pretty fantastic,’ said Cherry.
‘Work of genius,’ said Inchy.
‘And it made more mess than I’ve ever made,’ smiled House, shoulder‐deep in the hole, his face streaked with sweat and mud.
‘But where did you find enough silver?’ asked Alex. ‘I mean, you must have needed loads. Where did you get it?’
A faint proud smile crept across Spit’s face. ‘Never you mind. But it was a good job I did, wasn’t it?’
‘And how did you know we were in trouble?’ asked Cherry.
‘Well, for a start, it was Alex’s plan, which is never a good thing.’
Alex almost smiled.
‘And I figured that without you lot cramping my style I might b
e able to do something. So I dug the waterbombs out of the Lucky Dip and followed you down into the cellar. From then on I just sort of, er, winged it.’
Everyone laughed.
‘Thanks,’ said Alex. ‘And I’m sorry. I mean it. Truce?’
Spit took Alex’s outstretched hand.
‘Truce.’ Spit grinned. ‘After all, every gang of angels needs a demon slayer!’
‘And you’re never going to let us forget that, are you?’
Amid the laughter, it was House who asked the question that they’d all been pondering.
‘So when do we get our heroes’ welcome back into Heaven, then?’
‘Ah,’ said Alex. ‘That might be a bit tricky. I mean, Dante’s been destroyed and the egg’s been smashed, so there’s no proof that there ever was a demon in Green Hill.’
‘What about all the stuff in the secret room behind Dante’s cupboard?’ asked Cherry.
‘Gone,’ replied Alex. ‘When House and I went back this morning to check it out, the room was empty.’
Inchy sucked in a deep breath.
‘Dante did say he had allies in the town. Maybe they came and took everything during the night.’
‘Well, not quite everything.’
Everyone turned to see what was lying in Alex’s hands.
‘The Book of the Dead,’ said Cherry, her voice quiet.
‘We could show that to Tabbris,’ suggested House.
‘But it doesn’t prove that we destroyed a demon,’ said Inchy sadly. ‘We could have found the book in the library for all he knows. Even if Tabbris believed us, which I very much doubt, we’d have to tell him about sneaking out of the house again, and going up against Dante without telling him. I don’t think he’d be very pleased.’
‘So, no heroes’ welcome?’
‘No, House, not this time,’ replied Alex.
‘No parade?’
‘Nope.’
‘No –’
‘No nothing,’ snapped Spit.
‘What do we do with the book, then?’ Cherry raised her eyebrows at the others.
Alex turned to House.